David Cragg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Nowadays it's amazing how fast new mooring sites with rings have them damaged > and how quickly the armco at these sites also gets bent and battered. I > assume it is due to lots of big heavy boats passing too fast causing poorly > tied and fendered boats to jerk and bang around.
The practice of tying to the bank protection worries me. It isn't designed to take the strains involved. I'm not surprised you found quite a lot of it to be "bent and battered". After the time it takes to get BW to install the stuff, I hate to see it being pulled loose so soon. However, if there is a problem of loose rings or bollards it is where they haven't been installed with hefty enough anchoring. I expect that the loose ones you have seen are all relatively new. I can remember a new concrete one at a Stansted lock landing that was pulled right out of the ground by the normal pull of boats stopping to use the lock. Most of those from ex-working days, when many of them would have regularly snubbed fully-laden boats to a halt, are still in fine fettle. Yes, yes, it is possible to argue that all the ones that were pulled loose have disappeared, but I can't remember ever seeing an old one that was loosing its grip on the ground (except for wooden ones, of course). Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
